Description

The Sculpture of Love and Anguish - This is the artists portrayal of the Holocaust ... frozen in a patined bronze. A giant outstretched arm, tattooed with a number from Auschwitz, rises from the earth, the last reach of a dying person.

Each visitor has his own interpretation ... some see despair ... some hope ... some the last grasp for life . . . and for some it asks a question to God... "Why?"

In Memory of Six Million Martyrs...The Holocaust Memorial took over four years to be built, reaching its final stage at dedication ceremonies on Sunday February 4, 1990, with Elie Wiesel, Nobel laureate as guest speaker.

The visitor to the Memorial will at first be met by a visual sensation of contrasting elements: the brightness of the luminous Jerusalem stone, which represents the basic building material for the Memorial, and the stark, somber black granite, which lines the walls; another contrast is offered by the stillness of water in the reflecting pool with its majestic lily pads of uncommon dimension, and the azure sky reflecting its patterns in the water, almost competing with the somber reminder of the site's purpose - the reflecting shapes provided by the Memorial's sculpture.